The present invention is relevant to to a system for the provision of images with related sound. In particular, the present invention relates to a printer adapted both for the printing of images and for the recording of sound on to appropriate media.
There are a number of widely used media (films, video) for provision of sound and images together in a concurrent continuous way, but there has been less success in the provision together of still images with associated passages of sound. This is despite the fact that this has been identified as a desirable combination for at least forty years. An early solution was the Synchrosheet technology, developed by Tokyo Denki KKK, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, the Dai Nippon Printing Company and the Canon Camera Company. This technology is described in an article by Yasushi Hoshino entitled xe2x80x9cThe Talking Bookxe2x80x9d in The Penrose Annual, Lund Humphries, London, 1959. This technology involved use of a paper sheet coated with magnetic film on which sound was recorded in spiral tracks using magnetic recording heads. A large and relatively complex reader was required to read the sound tracks.
Alterative approaches have been adopted in subsequent work. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,270,853 and 4,270,854 both relate to instant printing cameras which also record a magnetic strip at a marginal portion of the film for recording sound. European Patent Application Publication No. 0670555 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,996 both relate to sound storage appended to images by optical means: in the former case, by a dot code, and in the latter case, by a bar code. U.S. Pat. No. 5,128,700 also teaches the use of a bar code in this context, but here the bar code does not itself contain the sound information: the bar code merely contains a reference to sound stored on another media so that a sound reader can determine the reference from the bar code and play the referenced passage of sound from a dedicated sound storage medium. U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,472 also teaches use of bar codes on a photographic print as a sound storage medium, and further suggests features of relief (blister marks) as an alternative. U.S. Pat. 4,905,029 discusses the idea of using xe2x80x9cacoustic recording mediaxe2x80x9d associated with photographic images to store related soundxe2x80x94alternatives involving chip storage are discussed also but these arc stated to be xe2x80x9cnot currently practicalxe2x80x9d.
A more complex approach to this design space is found in the xe2x80x9cVideo Postcardxe2x80x9d idea of Philips Electronics N.V., disclosed on World Wide Web site http://www eur.philips.com/design/vof/vofsite7/postcard/index.htm. This proposal concerns a piece of film with an embedded chip which stores a sound and video clip. The image display provision within the xe2x80x9cVideo Postcardxe2x80x9d is thus specific and complex, unlike a conventional printed image.
Proposals for realising attachment of sound to still images are also found in European Patent Application Publication No. EP 0827018 A1 (which teaches an image player with which xe2x80x9cimage-audio printsxe2x80x9d can be engaged to play sound), International Patent Application Publication Number WO 95/14958 and Belgian Patent Application Publication Number 1001348A6. European Patent Application Publication Number 0851281 is relevant to photographic processing for media capable of supporting this type of information.
Despite such a long standing interest in the possibility of provision of still images together with relevant passages of sound, no technology has been satisfactorily commercialised for this purpose. There is thus a need for technology which achieves provision of passages of sound with still images such that the sound and images together are cheap and convenient to produce, that playback of the sound is cheap and easy to accomplish, and so that both image and sound can be rendered at sufficiently high quality to satisfy a user.
There is a particular requirement for a device adapted both to provide printed images cheaply and conveniently, and also to provide effective and versatile transfer of sound information to an appropriate recording medium, to allow a user to use this technology easily and effectively.
Accordingly, the invention provides a printer, comprising: an information input, adapted so that the printer can receive first information defining a visual image and second information defining a passage of sound; a printer element for printing the first information as a printed image; and a writing element for writing the second information into an electronic storage device adapted for attachment to the printed image.
A printer with this functionality is a key component in a flexible, versatile and cheap solution to the production of still images with associated recorded sound. The differences between such a printer and a conventional document printer (such as a typical personal or network inkjet or laser printer) are not greatxe2x80x94it is desirable that printers according to the invention are able also to function as conventional document printersxe2x80x94and can be achieved without drastic mechanical redesign or added cost.
Preferably such a printer contains a mechanism for attaching electronic storage devices to the printed image (unless the image is printed on paper in which the electronic storage device is pre-embedded)xe2x80x94it is desirable for this mechanism to operate automatically when a Combined image and sound xe2x80x9caudioprintxe2x80x9d is scheduled for printing.
It is desirable for there to be a delivery mechanism for storing unwritten electronic storage devices, and for delivering them to the writing element for writing when required. The unwritten devices can usefully be provided on a bandolier, or as cartridges. It is useful (particularly in the case of automatic attachment) for the electronic storage devices to be self adhesive with a non-adhesive backing removed somewhere between storage and attachment.
Modified printers can act as xe2x80x9cphotocopiersxe2x80x9d for audioprints: they can scan a printed image and read the sound file from an attached or otherwise associated electronic storage device, and then xe2x80x9cprintxe2x80x9d out the scanned image and the sound file together. A further modification is to allow the printer to read (and perhaps play back) sound files in isolation, or to write sound flies to electronic Storage devices without the printing of any associated image.
A further useful feature is further information relevant to the image or to the sound passage to be stored together with the sound passage in the electronic storage device. This may usefully be a version of the image. Such further information may be received along with the image and sound file, or may be at least in part entered by the user at the printer. The printer may also usefully display some or all of this further information (for examples a thumbnail version of the image).